Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, yesterday described the bombing of an Internal Displaced Person’s Camp by an Air Force fighter jet as a tragic mistake.

Air Marshal Abubakar, who spoke at the 117 Air Combat Training Group (ACTG), Kainji, said “It was a very tragic thing yesterday. Our pilots got airborne hoping to save lives but unfortunately there was a tragic mistake which lead to the loss of lives of innocent people, we have been operating for eight years in the North East now we have flown close to 6000hrs, this is the first time we are having this tragedy.

“This is very tragic and unfortunate incident, sometimes it does happen in war, I want to say that we share in the pains and sorrows of the families that have lost loved ones, I want to sympathize with those that are wounded.

“We have directed our chief of medical services to provide medical facility in Maiduguri to the wounded so that they can also be treated there in addition to other medical facilities that are available in Maiduguri.”

He assured that the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) would conduct a thorough investigation into the accident.

“Also, we are putting up a high-powered committee at the Air Force level, I know the theatre commander is also working hard to find out what really happened, the information we have are very sketchy, we don’t want to pre-empt the findings of this committee both at the headquarters level and the Committee that has been set up.

“It is very tragic and unfortunate but I want to assure that as a professional service, we will continue to evaluate our procedures and processes so that we can be effective in dealing with those that are out to kill innocent people and not what really happened yesterday.”